Teachers: Lights in the Darkness

 

The sky was shades of gray against barren trees as I headed out for an early morning-stress-coping walk.  Yesterday,  a day of pounding rain had rearranged the piles of leaves into mountains of soggy reminders of a long, hard fall; thus, I felt like I was trudging rather than walking in the early morning.

As the leaves weighed down my feet, my mind connected with teachers, everywhere, trying to move forward and meet curricular and student needs while their hands and teaching strategies are dragged down and challenged by the ever changing rules of Covid-era-teaching. 

Some are teaching purely remotely trying to connect with students they have never met in person.  

Some are trying to teach in person AND virtually at the same time.

Many are working in hybrid models that turn into virtual models at the sign of a positive test. 

Many are finding out that their teaching model is changing when they wake up.

Most are exhausted from modifying curriculum and lessons late into the night.

Most are frustrated as they reflect on the challenges of meeting student needs, administrator requirements, and parental expectations.

All of them are learning to meet the needs of students in ways never imagined in staff development.

All of them are concerned about their students, their colleagues, the future.

So this dark morning, I want to celebrate teachers who really are lights in the darkness even if they feel like barren trees at this moment of time. 

No teacher ever has done what you are attempting to do this fall.

Take care of yourselves.